Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Jefferson Davis and the Capitol Building in Washington

Did you know that our Capitol Building in Washington, as we know it today, would probably not have existed if not for Jefferson Davis?

My friend Richard had written me about this and I pulled up an article titled "Humanities" on the Internet to find out more about it. This article by Guy Gugliotta (Sept/Oct 2012), says Davis's most lasting legacy as a nation-builder was as a prime mover in the enormous project to expand the US Capitol, "from a small cramped, statehouse-like building ...into a sprawling, magisterial seat of government with separate, marble-faced wings for the Senate and House, and a soaring new dome made of cast iron."

Gugliotta continues, "The U.S. Capitol, as we know it today, would never have existed without Jefferson Davis. In many ways, it is his building". Does anybody know this????

Davis, then serving in the U.S. Senate thought a great nation needed a great seat of government. When the price tag was discussed, Davis said, "What if it does cost more? If this Union continues together, and this continues to be the seat of Government, I have no idea that any plan which may now be suggested will finally answer all the wants of the country."

"Eventually" Davis said, "Congress may have to cover the whole square with buildings".

Through the ensuing years he kept the project alive and eventually made it thrive, even though, in the end he left the Senate and chose Mississippi and the Confederacy. Gugliotta says, "...but one could only speculate that were it not for blood ties, he could perhaps have gone the other way".

There was no doubt that Jefferson Davis loved the Union. Perhaps he loved the South more!